Signed: Napoli (scrafitto on front), Giuseppe Napoli 1965 “Shamballa”
(on back of board), Giuseppe Napoli (signed twice on stretcher)
H: 24” x W: 20”
A profoundly dynamic Abstract Expressionist painting by New York artist, Giuseppe Napoli. The painting is painted on board which is affixed to stretcher bars by staples.
Giuseppe Napoli was part of the New York School of the 1950’s and 60’s working out of a small studio in Greenwich Village. Napoli participated in numerous exhibitions but unfortunately his career was cut short by his suicide in 1967 the result of suffering from periods of depression.
Just as “Starry Night” is widely considered to have reflected the mental state of Van Gogh shortly before his death; this painting may also have reflected the mental state of Giuseppe Napoli who ended his own life only two years after creating this remarkable painting. The vigorous, heavy impasto, the ominous sun made impotent by the bold black ring that surrounds it and the jumbled landscape below, could be symbolic of the hope-against-hope, that eventually prevailed.
Claire McCarthy Falkenstein, Chase, Structure-graphic, unique impression of metal sculptural forms on handmade paper (artist’s proof) 1955
CLAIRE MCCARTHY FALKENSTEIN (1908-1997) Coos Bay, OR
“Chase” 1955
Structure-graphic, unique impression of metal sculptural forms on handmade paper (artist’s proof), steel frame.
Signed: “Claire Falkenstein ‘55” (on bottom right corner), “E prevue d’artiste” (on bottom left corner), #6, “Chase”, Structura grafica, Milano, Italy, Giorgo Unglio Shop (label on back)
*** A related structure-graphic from 1952-55 is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
Framed: H: 15 11/16” x 22 9/16”
SOLD
Falkenstein was born in the first decade of the century and was still hard at work in the last. Her life was precisely coincident with the 20th century, and she was a full participant in the tumultuous events in the art world. Her work incorporated modern technology, process, assemblage, chance, light, space, and what has been called “anti-form” as creative principles. Falkenstein was a contemporary of the Abstract Expressionists but, in fact, started sooner, lasted longer, and surpassed them in formal vocabulary, in the variety of materials she used and in her highly experimental techniques. Starting her career, (working, teaching and exhibiting} in San Francisco until 1950 when she moved to Paris for a dozen years to pursue her art career, where her association with critic Michel Tapié and his group Art Autre developed into many commissions including the gates at the home of her longtime friend Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, Italy. She returned to Venice, California in 1960. In other words, like a heat-seeking missile, she found and participated in the liveliest and most challenging art centers of the time. During her career she created over four thousand sculptures, paintings, and drawings, and became known for her innovative and often controversial abstract public art. Among major commissions were the windows for St. Basil’s Catholic Church, and fountains at California Federal Savings (now destroyed) and California State University. Putting her in the immediate milieu of many of the century’s greatest artists, she studied, worked, competed, collaborated and, in several cases, became close personal friends with several, including Alexander Archipenko, Clyfford Still, David Smith, Hans Arp, Mark Tobey, Antoni Tapies and Alberto Giacometti. Many years later, she said: “…there were marvelous things, marvelous people, but I took it all in stride. I was completely engrossed in what I was doing. There were people who were accustomed to being treated with deference and I guess I didn’t – and I guess that’s why they got interested.” (Falkenstein, Oral History, UCLA) Throughout Falkenstein’s career, she created a prodigious amount and variety of work, well beyond the traditional categories of painting and sculpture. She explored printmaking, ceramics, functional art, jewelry, and public monuments — ranging from the miniature (jewelry) to the colossal (50’ fountains and 100’ stained glass windows). And in each of these areas, her accomplishment has been consistently and unmistakably of historical significance.
American Art Deco, Neon, OK Chevrolet Used Truck Sign c.1940’s
AMERICAN NEON DESIGN
OK Chevrolet Used Truck Sign c.1940’s
Blue, yellow and red baked enamel on metal with an orange neon tube spelling out “OK” encircled with a round blue neon border, original paper tag.
Marks: Registration Mark (in the enamel) Original paper tag, This is an OK Used Truck, Authorized Chevrolet Dealer, Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation
Jan de Swart, Handcarved “Peach” Sculpture, c.1970
JAN DE SWART (1908-1987) Netherlands / USA
Peach sculpture c. 1970
Hand carved and formed jelutong wood in a symbolic / erotic form of a peach
For more information see: Jan de Swart: A Day That Becomes a Lifetime, exhibition catalogue (California: Fine Arts Gallery at the San Fernando Valley State College, February 1972); Jan de Swart, Mike McGee and William G. Otton (Laguna Beach, California: Laguna Art Museum, 1986).
H: 7 ½” x D: 4”
Price: $7,500
Constantly seeking and inventing new materials Jan de Swart was a true modernist. He was influenced by artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames, and later Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle. Although he had been creating small sculptures since his arrival in California from Holland in 1929, he had not been widely recognized until being introduced to John Entenza, publisher of Arts & Architecture magazine in 1947. Soon thereafter, he was able to create larger works and began collaborating with architects such as Whitney Smith and Victor Gruen on special commissions. His work is in the permanent collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and the Ford Foundation. He was honored with the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1965.
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